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A Refresher on Payback Method

Harvard Business Review

There are a variety of ways to calculate a return on investment (ROI) — net present value , internal rate of return , breakeven — but the simplest is payback period. What is payback period? Payback is by far the most common ROI method used to express the return you’re getting on an investment.

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An HBR Refresher on Breakeven Quantity

Harvard Business Review

I talked with Jill Avery, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School and co-author of HBR’s Go To Market Tools , to better understand how to use this important calculation. “It’s a pretty universal tool. While the concept may be straightforward, the calculation and the assumptions underlying it are far from simple.